Mark Wagner
Cultural Anthropology 8:30F Waters

Koobecaf: A nation of persons plugged into a digital alter-universe, where a person’s persona take higher becomes more real than reality itself. This latest contagious coalition, known to be more persuasive than either the Ecapsym or Agnax agencies, consists of a league of men and women of all ages, corporations big and small, and causes/beliefs, all which are growing exponentially, leading to an information overload crisis across the planet. As an individual gets plugged into the system, a non-binding contract has been virtually commissioned, absorbing all the latest subjects’ personal information, including their interests, hobbies, address, friends, and academic information.
The coalition of Koobecaf inhabitants exceeds 100 million participants. Each subject with a unique identifier and catch phrase voluntarily plugs themselves in. A society, continually developing in framework and layout, has set up a successful economic niche, where the subjects extra possessions are organized and bartered off for various goods, including a substitute for gold. Corporations in the network act not only as a recruiting base, but take advantage of the network to strategically place advertisements on an individuals digital alter-universe, according to subjects interests, and other personal information that it stored in the subjects database. Doing so by using advanced mathematics known as the Lexicon, which forms graphs out of the subjects information, relations their interests to corporations, sponsorships, and advertisements in an effort to take a subjects goods with they received from bartering. The corporations thrive off of the Koobecaf lack of privacy, leaving the blissfully ignorant subjects in the hands a network they trusted for privacy.
The subjects involved in the Koobecaf experiment have evolved with the framework of Koobecaf, not only changing the framework as a whole, but changing the ways of communication and means of communication. When a subject is plugged in they have the ability to instantly contact others connected in the system, from any location where the subject plugged themselves in. Not only can they contact privately or publicly through multiple methods, but the subjects are each assigned to Koobecaf ‘network groups’, as a way of further classifying their individual interests, and to communicate with those of similar interests. However, participants are encouraged to follow the rules and regulations of their contracts with Koobecaf. Their participation in the Koobecaf experiment will be terminated by the Professor Mark Zuckerberg and his cronies, which is known to cause subjects to go through withdrawal of the program.
The impact of the Koobecaf experiment does not end there. It has also affected the morals and beliefs of the subjects when they are plugged in and out of the experiment. It has modified the ethics of the participants in the way they interact. When subjects are not using the Koobecaf, their life in reality is altered. Their relationships are near non-existence, face-to-face conversations are considered faux-pas, and it would be considered to immoral to interact physically with another while unplugged. While plugged in, participant actions modified to a modest and humble poke, while daily conversation takes place in the safety of a specified zone. The subjects also have formed a different version of the arts. They reminisce over their unplugged relationships with montages of self-created print-sketches, usually consisting of two or three participants with various facial expressions. This artwork has become an obsession for subjects who repeatedly return to the alter-universe to see if Koobecaf is the host of new print-sketches consisting of themselves.
The Koobecaf experiment has become a dangerously addicted nation of persons. The relationship between the experiment and the subjects has become mutual however, for as the experiment flourishes, the benefits are descended upon the subjects. These benefits have made the culture of the Koobecaf users become egocentric and ignorant of their lives outside of the experiment. Koobecaf has evolved into more than just a program to test the connecting powers of individuals, but a lifestyle. Through its unique economy, networks of corporations, and the arts and morals all converging into the subjects mind; the threat of information overload increases by the second with the massive constant upload of information available through the Koobecaf framework.